Window on Pak Press: LeT denies links with Headley, Rana

Pakistan Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani on Monday termed Indian Army Chief Deepak Kapoor's statement on limited nuclear war as "irresponsible" and asserted that the conflict between the two neighbours could be resolved through dialogues.

According to a report flashed by leading daily The News, Gilani while talking to newsmen before his departure on a four-day tour of Germany and Britain said that the Indian Army chief's statement relating to the limited nuclear was irresponsible and the conflicts between Pakistan and India could be resolved through dialogues and added even India was also conscious of it.

Meanwhile, Dawn and The Nation-on-web said Lashkar-e-Taiba blamed for last year's attacks on Mumbai, denied on Monday that two men arrested in Chicago on terrorism charges were among its members. David Headley, a Pakistani-born American, and Tahawwur Rana, a Canadian citizen of Pakistani origin, were arrested in October on charges of plotting attacks in India and Denmark.

India has accused both of links to Lashkar-e-Taiba. "We strongly reject claims that Headley and Rana are associated with Lashkar-e-Taiba," the group's spokesman Abdullah Ghaznavi told AFP by telephone from an undisclosed location.

"We strongly condemn it. All our members are locals (Kashmiris) and none of our activists are present in America." "Linking the two to Lashkar is a game plan to malign Lashkar at an international level," Ghaznavi said, repeating that his group denied any involvement in the Mumbai attacks.

He said the group was only active in Kashmir "to end India's illegal occupation". India, the United States and Britain all blame LeT for the attacks on Mumbai, in which 10 heavily armed gunmen killed 166 people. US FBI officials will visit India to share information on the two men being held in Chicago, reports in New Delhi said Monday. Indian media, citing unnamed officials, recently said Headley intended to strike two elite boarding schools and a military academy in India and that he had befriended prominent people from Bollywood.

New US offer with terse warning On the other hand The Nation ran a Washington Post report that said US President Barack Obama has offered Pakistan an expanded strategic partnership, including additional military and economic cooperation, but with a blunt warning that it's use of insurgent groups to pursue policy goals "cannot continue".

The offer, including an effort to help reduce tensions between Pakistan and India, was contained in a two-page letter delivered to President Asif Ali Zardari this month by Obama national security adviser James Jones, The Washington Post reported Monday. It was accompanied by assurances from Jones that the United States will increase its military and civilian efforts in Afghanistan and that it plans no early withdrawal, the newspaper said.

Obama's speech Tuesday night at the US Military Academy at West Point, NY, will address primarily the Afghanistan aspects of the strategy, The Post said. "But despite the public and political attention focused on the number of new troops, Pakistan has been the hot core of the months-long strategy review, "the dispatch said. "The long-term consequences of failure there, the review concluded, far outweigh those in Afghanistan".

"We can't succeed without Pakistan," a senior administration official involved in the White House review was quoted as saying by the Post. "You have to differentiate between public statements and reality. There is nobody who is under any illusions about this."

This official and others spoke about the closely held details of the new strategy on the condition of anonymity, the dispatch said. They emphasized that without "changing the nature of U.S.-Pakistan relations in a new direction, you're not going to win in Afghanistan," as one put it. "And if you don't win in Afghanistan, then Pakistan will automatically be imperilled, and that will make Afghanistan look like child's play."

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